What is an SEM dashboard?
An SEM dashboard is an interface tool that consolidates data from multiple sources (e.g., Google Ads, Bing Ads, SEMrush) to track and display key performance indicators (KPIs) (e.g., CTR, CPC, conversions), enabling teams and agencies to monitor campaign and channel performance and create presentations for clients and executives.
SEM dashboards are typically built using flexible tools like Google Looker Studio, Power BI, Google Sheets, or platform-specific solutions to enable high customization and integration of multiple data sources.
What to include in an SEM dashboard?
An actionable SEM dashboard balances context and specificity based on the audience (executives, managers, and analysts) and their use cases.
Executive SEM dashboards
Executive dashboards for CMOs, CEOs, and clients show SEM's bottom-line impact. Reviewed weekly, monthly, or quarterly, they include:
- SEM ROI analysis: by channel, using attribution (MMM, lift analysis, multi-touch) for large budgets (≈100k/mo).
- Unit economics analysis: CAC, LTV, payback, ARPU from SEM-acquired customers
- Cohort analysis: retention, expansion, and LTV by customer cohort (sign-up period, acquisition channel)
- Add text for additional context to translate metrics for non-technical audiences. Present in slide decks and simplified Looker Studio reports.
SEM manager dashboards
Manager dashboards have cross-channel views with drill-downs to see performance by client, brand, region, team member, funnel stage, and campaign. They help align teams, define tactics, and include:
- Cross-channel reporting: overall campaign, product, client, or region reporting across channels
- Goal tracking: compare current performance vs objectives
- Audits for prioritization and spotting issues
- Competitive analysis for channel and tactic mapping
- Keyword and audience research
Operational SEM Dashboards
Operational dashboards for analysts and channel managers have granular, customizable KPIs to solve technical issues. Monitored hourly, daily, or weekly, they cover:
- PPC: budget pacing, engagement, creative performance, CPA
- Keyword performance: rankings, impressions, clicks, CPC
- Ad performance: ad copy effectiveness, quality score, ad extensions
Operational SEM dashboards are highly customized, built in flexible tools like Google Sheets or Looker Studio to enable data cleaning, blending, annotations, and integrating multiple sources.
How to build an SEM dashboard?
To build an SEM dashboard, connect your data sources, choose a template on Looker Studio or Sheets, build your queries by selecting metrics and dimensions, choose charts to visualize your data, customize the dashboard, design and share via link, PDF or email.
Here’s the breakdown:
Connect data sources
Define and connect the data sources to bring to your dashboard. Common sources are Google Ads and Bing Ads for PPC performance, SEMrush for keyword data, and CRM or E-commerce for sales data.
To connect your data sources, go to portermetrics.com, choose the data sources to bring to your dashboard.
You can follow these tutorials on connecting your data:
Choose a template
Choose from dozens of SEM dashboard templates in Google Sheets or Looker Studio, designed for use cases like PPC monitoring, budget pacing, funnels, and creative performance.
Learn to copy Looker Studio templates.
While templates are the starting point. Make them specific for your business or agency. Map your specific metrics, especially custom conversions, CRM contact data, and all the fields and metrics that you define as "conversions" and "revenue".
Depending on your reporting tool—Google Sheets or Google Looker Studio, pick any of the dozens of templates created by our team and customers to solve your SEM reporting use cases, such as PPC monitoring, budget pacing, funnels, and creative performance.
Select metrics, dimensions, and charts
Once your dashboard template is downloaded, you may 1)modify it or 2) create a blank page to build it from scratch. Whatever the case, setting up a query always follows these steps:
- Select the data source and the account connected to it
- Choose metrics (e.g. Clicks, spend, Sessions, ROAS, etc.).
- Choose breakdowns to segment your data (e.g. by date, campaign name, ad image, etc.)
You can follow these tutorials on adding data to your dashboards
Design
To make your SEM dashboards truly white-label you can add logos, colors, fonts, and styling to mirror your brand.
Follow these tutorials to design your SEM dashboards:
Share
Share your SEM dashboards via links, PDF, schedule emails, and control permissions.
KPIs to include in an SEM dashboard?
SEM dashboards should include a mix of funnel—visibility, engagement, conversion—, efficiency, effectiveness, revenue, and cost metrics and KPIs to fully understand the performance of SEM campaigns towards business goals. They include:
SEM funnel KPIs measure the buying process (from the marketer perspective), regardless of the channel:
- Visibility metrics: impressions, reach, ad views
- Engagement metrics: clicks, CTR, ad interactions
- Conversion metrics: custom conversions, leads, purchases, key events
Efficiency KPIs compare your SEM outputs to the cost, including:
- Visibility: CPM (Cost per Mille)
- Engagement: CPC (Cost per Click)
- Conversion: CPA (Cost per Acquisition), CPP (Cost per Purchase)
Effectiveness KPIs compare the input with the output from one funnel stage to another
- Visibility: Frequency
- Engagement: CTR, engagement rate
- Conversion: Conversion rate
Sales and cost KPIs show the bottom-line impact of your SEM performance:
- Sales: customers, revenue
- Cost: ad spend, OPEX, payroll
- Efficiency: ROI, ROAS, CAC
- Effectiveness: AOV, ACV
To analyze these SEM KPIs, segment them by:
- Channel: paid, search, Google Ads vs Bing Ads
- Time: Hourly, daily, weekly, monthly
- Campaign: funnel stage, objective
- Business: client, branch, region
- Audience: geo, tech, demographics, interests, behavior, placement
- Content: ad copy, format, keyword
